The Concise Grimmo Dictionary
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Things you only know if you're from Grimsby
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The Concise Grimmo Dictionary
Pete Green
5 March 2004
Welcome to Cod Almighty's Grimmo Dictionary, a far from exhaustive lexicon of Grimbarian slang and dialect. Should you wish to contest or add to these definitions – and let's face it, these things do tend to be controversial – please use the Cod Almighty feedback page. Ta.
armonia
distinctive pronunciation of the gas generally referred to outside the walls of Ladysmith Road's moribund Birds Eye factory as ammonia; eg. They sent us home early cos there was an armonia leak!
Bags' Ball
uncharitable term for Wednesday nights at Cleethorpes Winter Gardens, when local tradition was once for sexually underutilised young men to relieve their frustrations with women of scandalous seniority
bagwash
laundrette
barrer job
work done for cash in hand by dishonestly using boss's tools and materials; eg. Me mate works for NTL – he'll fit you a digibox as a barrer job!
bawk
like boke if you're from Caistor
bealing
crying
beer-off
off-licence
benny on, get a
become angry; see also monk on
Blue
term of endearment for a friend or family member; eg. We off up town tonight, Blue?
Blundell Park
little-known sporting arena located off the Grimsby Road – "behind McDonalds", as the flyer for a sale of electronic consumer goods held there in 1995 deemed it necessary to explain
Boato
Cleethorpes Boating Lake
bob
a poo; eg. I fell ovver the hoover in the middle of last night when I got up for a bob!
boke
vomit, esp. at the back of a coach on a school trip; retch dryly without vomiting
bomb out
transitive verb: fail without warning to fulfil a social engagement; eg. We was supposed to be playing togger down the Ploggers but me mates bombed us out!
bommy
bonfire
bommy night
Guy Fawkes' night
borry
borrow
budding
the bizarre and probably obsolete childhood practice of pulling buds from rosebushes and throwing them at the windows of houses
buggerlugs
deeply mysterious, not to say worrying, term of simultaneous endearment and abuse used by Grimsby parents addressing young children; eg. Now then, buggerlugs! Eat all that lovely fish or you'll get a clip round the lughole!
celter
rubbish; eg. Town's defence is absolute celter!
chimley
chimney. Extensive research has now established that it isn't just my mum who says this
chuck
throw (verb)
chud; chuddy
chewing gum
clats
derogatory term for unhealthy snack food taken between meals, usually used by your mum
cob
throw (verb)
cob on
see monk on
Coro
distinctively Grimbarian abbreviation for Coronation Street, which is truncated by the rest of the Anglophone world to "Corrie"
diesel
equally lethal and sickly beverage comprising lager, cider and blackcurrant cordial; less imaginatively referred to elsewhere as "snakebite and black"
div
idiot; contraction of NW England term divvy
does do
verb form described by linguists as "the Grimbarian double performative"; most famous occurrence in GTFC 1997-98 season highlights video: McDermott won't keep that in... oh! He does do!
Dolly, the
The Dolphin, extinct pub on a corner near Cleethorpes marketplace; now 'Reflex', an 80s theme bar
down town
synonym for up town used by my little brother in his early teens to try and sound all cool and American
egging at back o' Doigs
largely archaic term signifying an act of futility but used for purposes of evasion after speaker is interrogated as to their intentions or destination; eg. Where was yer last night? responded to by Egging at back o' Doigs! (cf. on Eastenders, when somebody asks: "Where ya gah-in' nah?" and the other person always replies: "Ahhht!") Egging was the act of collecting eggs from birds' nests (in the days when this was both legal and not considered morally dubious), while Doigs was a Grimsby shipyard, the surrounding area of which was bereft of wildlife; hence the futility of egging at the back of Doigs
Emmy, the
New Empire pub, Runswick Road, scene of excessive consumption of Double Diamond in formative days of this lexicographer
Flyover, the
overpass on the A180 running parallel to the docks from Riby Square
football
obscure team sport watched by inhabitants of other towns
Freemo
Freeman Street, trading thoroughfare that links Grimsby docks with the town centre and has mirrored the commercial decline of the fisheries accordingly. In its heyday, returning trawlermen would drink their entire wages between Riby Square and Hainton Square before getting home. Home of Freemo market, where products ranging from lamb fillets to slug pellets can be procured at competitive prices and variable quality
giz
give me; give us
glag; glag alley
large marble
godge
a look; eg. Giz a godge at yer glag alley!
goodies
sweets
goosegogs
gooseberries. I've just heard Ross Burden use this word on Ready Steady Cook and no way is he from Grimmo, but it's a nice one so I think we'll keep it in anyway
Grimmo
Grimsby. Current research suggests that the term emerged in the mid-1990s as a humorous tribute to the townspeople's fondness for abbreviating words by taking the first syllable and adding the letter O (see Freemo, immo, Boato, etc)
grufty
dirty
Gullies
Gulliver's, smallest nightclub in the world and on Tuesday nights Grimsby's enduring sole concession to 'alternative' music. Raised area of seating opposite DJ booth, on the right as you go in, is known as Goth Corner, which is kind of self-explanatory
guts for garters, have your
staggeringly gruesome threat of punishment or retribution made mostly, again, by loving parents to young children (see also buggerlugs)
immo
immature; used in early teens to denounce behaviour of peer and confer spurious sense of adulthood on speaker; eg. You're dead immo, you are, Greenie!
jiffle
fidget (verb)
joskin
rural type, esp. hailing from the Lincolnshire flatlands south of Grimsby
kaylie
sherbet; not a homophone of Marillion song, is pronounced to rhyme with KY; origins unknown
kegs
underpants
kinell
fucking hell
lob
throw (verb)
lug; lughole
ear. For minor misdemeanours deemed not to justify having their guts for garters, wayward children may be issued with a clip round the lughole
mardy
ill-humoured; irritable; arsey. By no means confined to North East Lincolnshire in its geographical reach, the term has nonetheless been given an amusingly Grimmo twist by the recent emergence of US tennis star Mardy Fish
meff
schoolboy term signifying an unattractive female
Meggies
Cleethorpes; originates from Meg's Island, an obsolete term for the area around Isaac's Hill
mell you in; mell your head in
inflict violence upon you
mesen
myself; eg. Well if you don't want yer goosegogs, I'll eat 'em all mesen!
mib
small marble
monk on, have a
be mardy. The disaffected Grimbarian may alternatively elect to have a cob or a benny on, presumably in the same place the monk is worn
now then!
hello!
Nunny, the
Nunsthorpe, housing estate of ill repute in the south-west of Grimsby. Drugs, joyriding, all that caper. Many Grimbarians insist that the Nunny is no worse than some other areas but just gets all the bad press when the Grimsby Telegraph runs one of its 'Crime: Let's Misrepresent It' campaigns
nunty
style of dress and design suggesting poor taste, premature ageing and a hard life. See here for an unnecessarily detailed explanation
off
going; eg. I'm off ovver to Ull tomorrer!
ovver
over
packing up
packed lunch
pag
transitive verb: to (illegally) take a passenger on one's pushbike in such a configuration that they occupy the saddle and hold onto one's hips for balance while one pedals and steers from a standing position; eg. I pagged him all the way from the Nunny! Also noun: the ride given in this manner; eg. Pags are dead immo!
pallie
pallet, esp. when working in a factory that uses them
piggy-pag
piggyback ride
Ploggers, the
esoteric but universally employed vernacular for Hardy's Recreation Ground, an alarmingly desolate patch of grass between Ladysmith Road and Humberstone Road
Precinct, the
alternative term for the Freshney Place shopping centre; predates its construction and hence not used by Grimbarians aged under 35
Rammies
Ron Ramsden's supermarket, eg. Me mam used to work in Rammies!
reckon
erroneously believe oneself to be hard; attempt to propagate such a belief. Also reckoner: one who reckons, eg. He's not hard – he's just a reckoner! I cobbed his packing up box ovver a wall and he started bealing!
right bobby dazzler, look a
appear smartly dressed and groomed, eg. You look a right bobby dazzler! Off up the Bags' Ball, are yer?
roaring
crying
rose; roseeeey; rose on the nose (and not on the toes)
negates preceding assertion for wind-up purposes; see also stuh
Scaffer
Scartho, well-to-do suburb in the extreme south of Grimsby. Alternative 'posh' pronunciation SCAW-thoe is used exclusively to take the piss
Scafferbaffs
swimming pool located on Scartho Road
scraps
stray pieces of batter from fried fish supplied gratis by chippies with your chips
scrob
mild term of abuse believed by some to have originally signified a Danish fisherman
slotties
amusement arcades, esp. along Cleethorpes seafront; derived from 'slot machines'
soz
sorry
soz, Mum!
your strident and hectoring tone is becoming reminiscent of my mother's!
spoggy
chewing gum; bubblegum
stitherum
a convoluted account of events; eg. Butcher's match report is always a right stitherum!
struts
stickleback, esp. when seeking to catch them from Chapman's Pond or the Boating Lake using a flimsy net purchased cheaply on the seafront. Male stickleback that have acquired high colour during the mating season are known by some as red doctors. Well, probably just by me and the lad I used to go fishing with when we were kids, actually
stuh
negates preceding assertion as per Wayne's World-style not; used by schoolchildren in 1980s for purposes of mockery and ridicule; eg. Nice pair of trainers, Greenie... stuh!
taffled
tangled
togger
football as played in a park or recreation ground
tomorrer
tomorrow
Top Town
area in Grimsby town centre, boundaries of which remain the subject of furious debate among Grimbarians. I always thought it was the bit around the Bull Ring but am bound to get 50 scrillion emails arguing otherwise. Home of Top Town Market, an alternative to Freemo market that also sells used Mills & Boon novels and pieces of foam rubber
traino
former route of Grimsby-Louth railway, widely used (albeit probably illegally) as a convenient pedestrian shortcut and secluded area for illicit drinking and drug use, between December 1980, when the line was closed, and the mid-1990s, when the traino was obliterated by the Peaks Parkway section of the A16, opened to traffic in October 1998 (but it doesn't look much like a park to me, unless it's one with cars instead of trees)
tret
past tense and past participle of treat; eg. I went round me Nan's and she tret us to some spoggy!
twag; twag it
play truant
Ull
Yorkshire city situated opposite Grimsby on the estuary of the Umber; see also Yorkie
Umber
river upon whose estuary Grimsby is situated; often mistakenly called the sea
up town
remaining area of Grimsby town centre not covered by the term Top Town
us
used as first-person singular as well as plural; eg. I went round me Nan's and she tret us to some spoggy!
yersen
yourself; eg. You off ovver to Ull by yersen?
yonks
indefinite but lengthy period of time; eg. I haven't been to Wonderland for yonks! Again, not exclusive to Grimmo, but I like it
Yorkie
native of Yorkshire – representative of the outside world and hence a figure to be feared and maligned
Profuse thanks to Tim B, Glenn Bateman, Bill Brewster, Johnny C, Alan Edward Critchley, Richard Dawson, Ed Fleet, Chris Green, Mat Hare, Rich Mills, Paul Thundercliffe, Tabatha, and Jerry Woolner for their contributions to this page
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